I was a bit embarassed asking my brother in law to collect this table (and hand over 45euro) until I could come and collect it (and pay back the money) – as it was really in a sorry state. I had seen the table on ‘Adverts.ie’, and thought it would be perfect for my 201 machine, as well as being useful having a machine table combo. While it was not as interesting looking as the bigger singer tables with side drawers, I liked the modest lines, and smaller ‘footprint’ of this table.

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Tidy and all as the table is, my workroom space was getting rather crowded lately as it now has to double up as my home office and last weekend was the weekend to reorganise (bank holiday).

The weather has been rather good (dry) lately so it was a good time to bring the table to the yard, and apply some stripper. I stripped the varnish/finish off, and then sanded it. I wasn’t sure of the finish underneath and for a moment I thought the wood was potentially the same – as the colour of the table was uniform. Once striped, the table looked so different – I think the legs are pine or some composite and the veneer was much darker, so if I revarnished/sealed it would look like a patch work.

I decided to paint the table with a waterbased satin wood (cheapest in diy store) – and oil the table top. I dithered for a while on paint colour and chose black as it seemed the simplest choice. The sanding and stripping took a few hours, and the painting and oiling took about an hour each time – so in the end it was a rather quick job.

So very happy with the table. Ironically the first sew I did was to put the bernina on it and get some jeans darning done (the bernina has the ‘free arm’). I did use the 201 after to do a zip fix!